"James E. Gunn - Breaking Point" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gunn James E)

They looked at him. He raised his head, stiffened his spine against the bulkhead. Paresi smiled at him.
"Sure, Johnny.[Pg 20] The machine didn't fail. It wasтАФcontrolled. It's all right." Then he turned to the
Captain and said carefully, "I'm not denying what you say, Skipper. But I don't like to think of what will
happen if you take that tack, reason it through, and don't get any answers."

"I'd hate to be a psychologist," said Ives fervently. "Do you extrapolate your mastications, too, and get
frightened of the stink you might get?"
Paresi smiled coldly. "I control my projections."

Captain Anderson's lips twitched in passing amusement, and then his expression sobered. "I'll take the
challenge, Paresi. We have a cause and an effect. Something is keeping us in the ship. Corollary: WeтАФor
perhaps the shipтАФwe're not welcome."




"Men of Earth," quoted Ives, in an excellent imitation of the accentless English they had heard on the
radio, "welcome to our planet."

"They're kidding," said Johnny heartily, rising to his feet. He dropped the control wheel with a clang and
shoved it carelessly aside with his foot. "Who ever says exactly what they mean anyhow? I see that
conclusion the head-shrinker's afraid you'll get to, Skipper. If we can't leave the ship, the only other thing
we can do is to leave the planet. That it?"

Paresi nodded and watched the Captain closely. Anderson turned abruptly away from them all and
stood, feet apart, head down, hands behind his back, and stared out of the forward viewports. In the
tense silence they could hear his knuckles crack. At length he said quietly, "That isn't what we came here
for, Johnny."

Johnny shrugged. "Okay. Chew it up all you like, fellers. The only other choice is to sit here like bugs in a
bottle until we die of old age. When you get tired of thinking that over, just let me know. I'll fly you out."

"We can always depend on Johnny," said Paresi with no detectable emphasis at all.

"Not on me," said Johnny, and swatted the bulkhead. "On the ship. Nothing on any planet can stop this
baby once I pour on the coal. She's just got too much muscles."

"Well, Captain?" asked Hoskins softly.

Anderson looked at the basking valley, at the too-blue sky and the near-familiar, mellow-weathered
crags. They waited.

"Take her up," said the Captain. "Put her in orbit at two hundred kilos. I'm not giving up this easily."

Ives swatted Johnny's broad [Pg 21] shoulder. "That's a take-off and a landing, if I know the Old Man. Go
to it, Jets."